"I'm not the type to pat myself on the back and all that, but somebody has to be lucky, right? When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation"
About this Quote
The apartment detail does the heavy lifting. “Sleeping on the floor with six guys” isn’t just hardship; it’s credibility, a certification stamp that he paid dues in the unglamorous way people imagine real strivers do. Dallas functions as the proving ground: not hometown comfort, but a chosen arena. The image of driving through rich neighborhoods is especially telling. He’s not describing envy; he’s describing a self-administered motivational system, turning wealth into a visual totem. The big houses become a storyboard for the future, a kind of analog vision board before the term went mainstream.
The subtext is classic entrepreneurial ideology: desire is virtuous if you call it “motivation,” and proximity to wealth is reframed as inspiration rather than inequality. It works because it offers a clean narrative with two blessings at once - grit and luck - letting listeners believe success is both earned (comforting) and possible (seductive).
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cuban, Mark. (2026, January 17). I'm not the type to pat myself on the back and all that, but somebody has to be lucky, right? When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-the-type-to-pat-myself-on-the-back-and-all-72683/
Chicago Style
Cuban, Mark. "I'm not the type to pat myself on the back and all that, but somebody has to be lucky, right? When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-the-type-to-pat-myself-on-the-back-and-all-72683/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm not the type to pat myself on the back and all that, but somebody has to be lucky, right? When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-the-type-to-pat-myself-on-the-back-and-all-72683/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.



